Catholic Media Journal

One year ago today, March 14, 2007, I was in the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans with 8 Franciscan University of Steubenville students. We were on a Spring Break “Media Mission” to the areas hit by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Although a year and a half had gone by and much recovery and rebuilding work had been done along the Mississippi Gulf Coast and New Orleans by individuals and organizations, the impact on the people and the area were still so evident.

I wanted the students to observe, experience - and share their experiences through written, oral and visual stories. And I was looking forward to again seeing some of the people I’d met in October, 2005, when I first visited these areas 2 months after Katrina had hit. How were they doing? How were their friends and families? How was the recovery going?

We found just about everything - joy and sadness, hope and hopelessness, hearts of gold and hearts crying out to God. Unfortunately, our Media Mission wasn’t part of a class, and when we got back to Steubenville after Spring Break, we were caught up in our classes and projects - and didn’t get all of our stories out. There were several exceptions, including an excellent video documentary produced by Kristen Rainey as her Senior Thesis project, and stories in the University’s Franciscan Way magazine and the student newspaper, The Troubadour. We’ve been able to share our personal stories with our friends and families. And as a demonstration in one of my classes, I produced a short podcast (12-1/2 minutes long) about part of the trip. Here it is:

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By the way, The Endless Road Podcast is a very-occasional podcast I produce, often to test new equipment and audio programs. And listening to this 2007 podcast, I’m glad we’re using better equipment now. If you’ve checked the About page of this site or our earliest posts, you know that Catholic Media Journal began as an online diary of a 2005 Catholic Media Tour to Mississippi and Louisiana two months after Hurrican Katrina. It’s good to remember, to pray, and to support the people and the Church, however we’re called.Finally, if you’d like to be an early subscriber to our podcasts, follow this link.

Jim Coyle

Through the magic of Internet communications, Tim Drake, Senior Writer for the National Catholic Register, was our Guest in the March 12 Church & Media class at Franciscan University of Steubenville. Tim talked with us about Catholic journalism, New Media, his experience blogging from 2005 World Youth Day in Cologne, Germany, and his new blog, Pope2008.com - one of the RSS feeds featured on the right side of our website.

We recorded the 25-minute conversation as the first edition of the Catholic Media Journal Podcast and invite you to listen. Just use our player:

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Update 3/21/2008: To be an early subscriber to our podcasts, follow this link. 

One of the many Catholic podcasts we enjoy is “The Catholic Underground - the podcast about the meeting place between our Catholic Faith and New Media.” It’s lively, enjoyable, informative - and “random” as some people say. They broke from their regular format for an episode last October in which the hosts were interviewed online by Caroline Schermerhorn of Envoy magazine. This episode lets us get to know more about the podcast, the people and purpose behind it - Cool stuff.

Go to CU Episode #56 - Envoyage! to listen online.

As you scroll down this page, along the right side you’ll find feeds for 2 blogs devoted to Pope Benedict XVI’s April 15-20 visit to the United States. With the Pope’s visit several weeks away, bloggers are already sharing stories and information about the event. We’re reading about some of the behind-the-scenes preparations, seeing historic video footage of Pope John Paul II’s 1979 visit to Catholic University of America, and finding links to some of the stories already being published in the regular media. Through these and other blogs, we’re already able to get a personal sense of involvement in Pope Benedict’s visit.

The first blog is Pope2008.com written by Tim Drake, an active Catholic author and journalist who blogged during World Youth Day in Cologne, Germany, sharing stories through words and pictures. The next blog is from members of the Communications staff of the USCCB - the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops - who are key planners for logistics and media relations for the U.S. Papal Visit. Right below that blog is a feed showing the most recent stories from the Papal Visit 2008 website.

These are RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds and will be showing the most recent posts and stories from their sources. Click on a post’s title or the name of the source to go directly to the website.

We’ll be adding more as time goes on, so be sure to check them out.

Taking advantage of Spring Break here at Franciscan University of Steubenville, I’ve made several changes to Catholic Media Journal’s look and feel. The biggest change was switching to WordPress as the framework, using a theme by Chris Peterson. There’s still work to be done on the site, but since you’re reading this you know we’ve gone “live” with the new design.

Catholic Media Journal started in October 2005 as an online diary by Catholic journalists reporting on the destruction caused by Hurricane Katrina in Mississippi and Louisiana. We’ve re-activated the Journal, planning to take a wider look at communications within and about the Catholic Church. A major event we’re planning to cover is the April visit by Pope Benedict XVI to the United States, looking especially at New Media stories - and the communications technology being used in 2008. I’m anticipating many changes in technology since covering my last Papal Visit - World Youth Day in Denver with Pope John Paul II in 1993. All of it, though, should help tell stories of the Pope’s visit to the United States - more ”up close and personal” than ever before.

Jim Coyle